Blog 
The journey till now…
SimpliFlying, the blog, is now almost three years young. The 358 articles on this blog on airline branding and social media have been read almost half a million times by readers from over 200 countries (gotta drive some traffic from Madagaskar!) And thank you for making it such a huge success.
When I started SimpliFlying following my passion for airplanes and the airline business, I had no clue about where I was heading. When I left my job in Boston, there was no business model. And when we broke even, our largest client was a hotel chain.
Today, SimpliFlying, the company, having just celebrated its second anniversary has become a global leader in providing brand strategy, customer engagement and social media consulting and training services to airlines around the globe – with offices in Singapore, New York and Toronto. Of course, it wouldn’t have been possible without our hugely talented team (special thanks to @bostonmarketer and @flyingwithfish) and our very supportive Board of Advisors.
Two years ago, we were part of the group of harbingers leading the social media branding evolution for airlines. Now, it’s time for a new revolution.
The New Face of SimpliFlying – from airline branding to seamless traveler engagement
Here are two questions for you:
- How often do you blame the airline when your bags arrive late on the belt? It’s often the airport’s fault.
- How many of you can go to your home airport and ask them how many times you’ve been there…and expect the right answer?
After speaking at over 40 aviation conferences over the last two years (watch me speaking), I’ve realized that the common traveler doesn’t differentiate between an airline and an airport – it’s a seamless travel experience. That means that if anything goes wrong, the whole travel experience is soured.
For example, during the recent snowstorm in New York, Virgin Atlantic gave blankets in the plane, but when passengers were stuck at JFK in freezing cold for over 20 hours, they weren’t given anything. Do you blame the airline, or the airport? It’s the travel experience that matters.
Hence, in 2011, SimpliFlying – the blog and the company – will be focusing on the holistic travel experience, hence focusing not just on airlines, but airports as well. Not only will we be able to help airlines drive customer engagement, but airports too.
The blog will feature case studies of airlines and airports around the world – engaging customers the right way and driving profits, loyalty and customer service. And after multiple approaches from airports for consulting, we will be proactively helping them drive engagement and help build stronger brands too.
A Brand New Team
My passion is airlines. And to lead SimpliFlying to the new world of airports, we’ve assembled a world-class team, based in Toronto and Singapore. Please allow me to introduce you to Robert Cook, Craig Stark and Shubhodeep Pal, who’re helping me lead this revolution.
Robert Cook (@airgatesolution) is the co-Founder and Managing Director of AirGate Solutions. He has over 20 years experience in the aviation industry, in which he was actively involved in new business development, consultancy and ancillary revenue activities. Robert will be leading the Airports Practice at SimpliFlying, based out of Toronto.
Over the past 30 years, Robert has held key senior roles with global organizations such as GE, Westinghouse, AT&T, Northrop Grumman, SITA and British Telecom. He founded and currently serves as Chairman of Blackstone Gates, a consultancy, focused on business transformation and customer-centered strategies with projects ranging from customer experience management, revenue generation initiatives, ancillary airline revenues and airport retail.
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Craig Stark founded Social Media Wave with partnerships in all the key foundations of social media marketing and analytics, and is a co-Founder of AirGate Solutions. He is responsible for developing and deploying client strategic and architectural blueprints pertaining to social media strategy and the deployment of web 2.0 platforms and technologies, for airports and airlines.
His latest roles as business development manager were with start ups such as eCommerce Inc. and sales/territory manager for large corporations such as Banyan Systems, Microsoft, 3Com and Bell Canada. He has worked in the high technology marketplace with experience in manufacturing, distribution, insurance, accounting, telecommunications and media sectors.
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Shubhodeep Pal has previously interned with SimpliFlying and has considerable experience working in the social media sphere, having conducted a workshop at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore. He has written an introductory e-book for social media newbies as well. His wide range of interests include web development, social media research and literature. His first collection of poems, Interruptions was released last year.
Shubhodeep will be leading product development and marketing for airlines and airports, and will be based out of Singapore.
Customer Engagement Products
Why can’t you check-in to your flight using your Facebook login ID? Can an airline tell the FFP manager how many Facebook fans have flown more than 5 times in the past month? With a range of products, we’ll be trying to help airlines, airports and travelers answer these questions.
You’d have realized that both Craig and Shubhodeep will be focused on product technology and marketing respectively – and that’s because we will be focusing our efforts towards developing products for airlines and airports to better utilize social media to engage customers profitably. This goes well to complement our consulting and training practices.
And one more thing…
Given that there are so many changes happening, it’s only natural that the site design will evolve too, and yes – you will soon see a brand new interface – much cleaner and more user friendly 🙂 And I’ve finally succumbed to multiple requests for having a Corporate site as well – so expect that soon too!
The SimpliFlying team is very excited about all these new developments, and I’d like to invite you on our revolutionary journey, in which we hope to empower airlines and airports to engage us better, and treat us like individuals.
Keep Flying! SimpliFlying!